Potiche

I saw the French film 'Potiche' ( Trophy Wife ) last night. It was silly & charming & idealistic & features a deliciously cheesy soundtrack. My favourite moment was the last scene, when for some unknown reason Catherine Deneuve bursts into song. 'C'est beau la Vie' ! love tt

Joan Miró

Yesterday evening I went with some friends to the Tate Modern exhibition [link] of the Spanish Surrealist painter Joan Miro. We were all very moved by this retrospective. I was particularly affected by one room in which there were six larger single colour paintings. I had a very strong feeling of positivity & a great energy for life. In fact this is probably the most optimistic I've ever felt leaving a gallery ! This exhibition runs until September hope you can catch it, love tt

Album Teaser !!

The new album teaser is on line on the new home page http://www.tanita-tikaram.com/ !! love tt

Mary Gauthier / Singer-Songwriter

This week's TT Test is taken by the great American singer-songwriter Mary Gauthier [link]. Her songs have been covered by many artists including Tim McGraw & Candi Staton & her albums have all been highly praised culminating in the masterpiece 'The Foundling' which tells her own story of being abandoned as a child,the struggle for her own identity & birth mother & ultimately the triumph of love. What is your wake up song at the moment ? 'Lorraine', by my dear friend Lori McKenna. Which work of art or single event has most influenced you in your chosen profession? I got sober from drugs and alcohol in 1999, and songwriting followed. I would never have become a songwriter without recovery from from my addictions. If you could travel back in time, which period would you most like to visit and why ? I'd go back 40-50 years in Nashville, to the time when the songs coming out of this town were great, and I'd hang out with the my songwriting hero's when they were in their prime... Harlan Howard, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Marijohn Wilkin, johnny Cash, Tom T Hall et al. I'd find my way into their scenes, and they'd make me a better writer just from being around them. I love eating out & discovering new restaurants,can you please recommend one to me ? Margot's Cafe [link], in Nashville,TN. My favorite restaurant of all time, The chef is the owner, and she is in the kitchen every night cooking fresh local ingredients with passion and love. No one can cook fish like Margot, and she changes the menu every day to reflect what's fresh in the market. I am a huge fan. What is the best advice you ever been given relating to your professional /creative life ? Unless they are giving you a big check, don't sign anything. BONUS QUESTION: I am intrigued that you also teach songwriting - what sort of guidance are students looking for ? And what is it that you try to bring out of them? I teach songwriters to look for their own voice, and look inside themselves for the truth of what they are trying to say. I can teach the craft (song structure, chord progressions, rhyming patterns) but I can't teach the art, the art being the subjects which the writer is called to write about. I try to teach the students to listen to the voices in their heads and hearts, and reveal what's being said in there. I try to teach them to allow themselves to be vulnerable, and expose their hearts. I try to teach them that songwriting is more about re-writing than anything. and most of all, I try to teach them to connect with themselves and their listeners. I let them know that if they are not connecting, it's not the listeners fault. Basically, I give them a ladder, show them the rungs... and it's up to them to do the climbing.

Psapp - Sad Song

This week's wake up song is Psapp's 'Sad Song '. The song sounds so crunchy it always makes me smile & even if the refrain is 'I don't want to live no more' it's not sad at all ! Listen out for the great line 'Peter, just called to say, he saw a slug eating a chip...' That has to be some kind of genius :) The video I'm posting is a fan video, I don't think a band video is available for this song, anyways, hope you enjoy, lotsoflove tt

A Monster Calls

Just finished reading 'A Monster Calls'. The book's own history is worth telling. Siobhan Dowd was a children's writer who died in 2007 from cancer. At the time of her death she had left some details of the story, the characters, a detailed premise and a beginning but sadly did not have the time to write it. Her publishers commissioned author Patrick Ness to complete the book & Jim Kay to illustrate it. The young boy's struggle to accept a terrible loss is a universal one & the illustrations are so powerful that it's worth buying the book for them alone. It already feels like a classic to me, love tt

Marie Knight & Mary Gauthier

I have developed a bad habit of not setting time aside to really listen to albums in their entirety. I tend to hear a new song I like & add it to an ever expanding playlist of favourites & if I do listen to any albums they are probably familiar & trustworthy & at least 20 years old! However, I recently discovered two great records - if not exactly new releases Marie Kinght's 'Let Us Get Together' [link] was released in 2007 and Mary Gauthier's 'The Foundling' in 2010- they are new to me & just as thrilling as any of my older beloved record collection The recommendation from Madeleine Peyroux 'This record has gotten into my soul,spirit... & I cannot stop... music that infects one with joy...' on the cover of Marie Knight's 'Let Us Get Together' made me curious. I'm not religious & it's a gospel record but Knight's voice, at over 80 years old, still so powerful & authoritative & perfectly partnered with multi-instrumentalist Larry Campbell moved me deeply. Sadly, Knight passed away in 2009 but along with her earlier recordings including her work with Sister Rosetta Tharpe from the 40s leaves us with a great musical legacy. The other record, Mary Gauthier's 'The Foundling' [link] is astounding. I can only urge you to find the time to discover it's rare & haunting beauty.You can hear acoustic versions of the songs from 'The Foundling' on this channel [link]. Hope you enjoy, lotsoflove tanita

Alberta Hunter/ Darktown Strutters' Ball

This week's wake up song is performed by the legendary Alberta Hunter. The beautiful 'Darktown Strutters' Ball' was written in 1917 by Shelton Brooks & inspired by a ball at the 1915 Pacific-Panama Exposition in San Francisco. It is one of the earliest traditional jazz songs to become a standard. Alberta Hunter's version recorded when she was actually in her 80s (how is it possible to be so vocally fit at that age ?!) makes you want put on your most glamorous clothes & dance the night away ! Hope you enjoy :) love tt

Jammy Dodgers !!

London is so beautiful & sunny at the moment, I am spending a lot of time outside, discovering new places especially the markets which come into their own at this time of year. One of the most charming I visited during a quieter week day is Brixton Village Market with it's beautiful covered Arcade & very good coffee ! Broadway Market [link] is also worth visiting, I found a stall with the best home made Jammy Dodgers I've ever tasted !! love tt

Photo (c) Sylvie Bardet

Sarah Waters / Writer

This week's TT Test is taken by Sarah Waters [link] one of Britain's best loved novelists. Her first novel 'Tipping the Velvet' marked the arrival of a writer who has the rare gift of creating popular & critically acclaimed fiction - much of her work has been adapted for television & film and 'Fingersmith', 'The Night watch' and 'The Little Stranger' have all been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for fiction. With so many accolades her modesty is refreshing. Her answers are great too :) What is your wake up song at the moment ? The last CD I bought was The Resistance, by Muse, and the track I keep playing from it is Uprising.I listen to music mainly when I'm walking through London, and Uprising is a great track to go striding across the city to; it's got revolutionary lyrics, a thumping beat, and makes you feel like Rosa Luxemburg. I do love Muse. Their music is camp and epic at the same time - quite an achievement. I'm longing to go to a Muse concert, but I'm too embarrassed: it would be me and ten thousand teenage boys. Which work of art or single event has most influenced you in your chosen profession ? There are a few authors whose work really inspired me to start writing - most notably Angela Carter, Philippa Gregory and Jeannette Winterson. In very different ways their books have taken on history, tradition, the canon; they've teased new stories out of the past, or invented new, fantasy histories if they didn't like the ones already on offer - I suppose that's what I've tried to do, too. But the single biggest influence on me probably came from a novel called Street Lavender, by Chris Hunt. It's the adventures of a rent boy in late Victorian London - a shamelessly rompy, sexy, romantic story, but a really intelligent one, too. It was published by Gay Men's Press in the mid 1990s: I read it and thought, 'Wow! This is brilliant!' Tipping the Velvet was really my attempt to do something similar, for lesbians. If you could travel back in time, which period would you most like to visit and why? I've written so much about the Victorians that I guess I'd have to choose the nineteenth century. I'd love just to be able to eavesdrop on a few ordinary conversations, on the street and in people's homes. As a researcher, ordinary domestic and emotional life is the hardest thing to get hold of, because it tends not to find its way into the history books. But it's what fascinates me most about the past: the mundane details of people's lives; how they thought about their bodies; what they dreamt about; what satisfied and disappointed and frustrated them. I love eating out and discovering new restaurants, can you please recommend one to me ? To be honest, I'm not at a big restaurant goer. I find food and eating and all that a bit tiresome. My ideal restaurant is one that's cheap and quick, but with a bit of personality - somewhere like the India Club [link], on the second floor of the Strand Continental Hotel, London. It's a wonderfully quirky place where the food's all right, service is sometimes huffy, but you can slope off afterwards to a cinema, a theatre or the South Bank. What is the best advice you ever been given relating to your professional/ creative life ? When I was struggling with an early draft of Tipping the Velvet, my friend Sally, to console me, said, 'But Sarah, you were never going to get it right first time. It would be a miracle if you got it right first time!' I've always remembered that - and I think of it, particularly, when my writing feels stuck, or the words on the screen before me look more than usually awful. Yes, it would be a miracle if you sat down at your desk and wrote, straight off, a perfectly finished novel. But by plugging patiently away at it, by being ready to edit and re-draft, you can make it better. BONUS QUESTION : Is there any truth to the rumour that 'Tipping The Velvet' is being adapted into a stage musical? Can you tell us any more details about this ?! There is indeed some truth to it... But I'm afraid I can't say any more right now, because the project is still in its very earliest days. It's a great idea, though, isn't it? Tipping is such a theatrical book. I'd love to see it bounce into life on the stage.

Congratulations !!

London is super loved up today !! This morning there was not a sound in the park or on the roads, everyone was watching the wedding. It's a good excuse to post this Shirley brown classic ' Long As You Love Me'. Lotsoflove !! tt

17 Hippies - Frau von Ungefahr

This week's wake up song is from the German band 17 Hippies (actually, there are only 13 of them !). I've recently discovered this band & it's hard to choose one song because their music is so diverse & vibrant , however, I've settled upon 'Frau Von Ungefahr'. 2.27 minutes into this live performance there's a lovely moment that only really makes sense in front of a live audience & you can feel the audience's excitement as the band builds the crescendo. Hope you enjoy ! lots of love, tt

17 HIPPIES Frau von Ungefähr par schlowarzel

George Shaw

I caught the exhibition 'Last Days of the Comet' at the Hayward Gallery last week. This is number 7 of the British Art Show Series, which also visits other UK cities over the next few months [link]. I was really touched by three paintings by the artist George Shaw featuring the Coventry council estate he grew up on. The Art show's website mentions that Shaw started these paintings 'as a kind of mourning' for the person that he used to be, and are 'as much about what has been forgotten, lost, swept away, as about what is remembered'. Maybe, that's why I had such a surprising feeling of nostalgia when I saw them. It's a different town,but they reminded me of the housing estate of the first house my parents owned in Basingstoke. I never expected to walk into a gallery & have that memory rendered so powerfully ! Until the 15th of May there is also a solo exhibition of his work at the Baltic Centre in Gateshead [link] love tt

In a forest, Dark & Deep / Clybourne Park

I saw the Neil Labute play 'In a Forest, dark and deep' last night, basically because a friend of mine has a crush on the actor Mathew Fox who was starring in it (as did most of the young audience!). Perhaps, this is not the best reason to go to theatre - the general critical reaction that the play is neither dark nor penetrating is fair, and I was disappointed by how psychologically lazy the writing was i.e dodgy stereo-types that were difficult to believe in. The weaknesses of this production reminded me of how great the current London production of another contemporary American play Bruce Norris 'Clybourne Park' is. It's possible to make an audience uncomfortable (not exasperated), deal with incendiary topics but still be engaging & entertaining. 'Clybourne Park' does this brilliantly. It runs until early May, love tt

Jolie Holland - Mexico City

This week's wake up song is the gorgeous 'Mexico City' by Jolie Holland. I'm embarrassed to admit, although I was transfixed by this song from the beginning, it wasn't until I googled the lyrics that I actually understood them. And they are beautiful. I guess this is the perfect road song & for all it's melancholy as soon as I hear the opening guitar strums I have a strong desire to be on the move & travelling. Hope you enjoy it too ! lots of love tt

Incendies

Saw a great movie last week 'Incendies' an adaptation of the acclaimed play by Wajdi Mouawad, and directed by French-Canadian director Denis Villeneuve. 'Incendies' is really a modern day Greek tragedy with as many unexpected twists & shocking family secrets. It is profound and compelling I find myself haunted by this film. Lubna Azabal's performance (TT Test link) deservedly won the Best Actress Award in the recent Canadian Jutra & Genie Film Awards. Strongly recommended, lots of love tt

Joanna Briscoe / Writer

This week's TT Test is taken by the writer Joanna Briscoe [link] whose novels have received great critical acclaim for their psychological insight & Joanna's skill in creating suspense. Most important of all they are impossible to put down ! Her first, 'Mothers & Other Lovers' controversially won the Betty Trask award, and a third novel 'Sleep With Me' was adapted for television by Andrew Davies. Her new novel 'You' will be published by Bloomsbury later this year. She is also a regular contributor to 'The Guardian', 'Independent' & 'The Observer'. What is your wake up song at the moment? It's a surprising choice... 'Gush Forth My Tears' a 16th Century song recorded in the early 1990s by a band called Miranda Sex Garden. I only listened to it because the pianist & violinist who also teaches my daughter piano used to sing with them. Though I find the band gimmicky (the teacher isn't!), the song sticks in my mind & I return to it. Which work of art or single event has most influenced you in your chosen profession? I have to say 'Tess of the d'Urbervilles' by Thomas Hardy. I read it at 16, & not only did it make sense of the wild countryside in which I lived, but it affected me profoundly. I had never loved a novel so much, so passionately. I couldn't put it down & was haunted by it from first reading, & the combination of amazing plot, lyricism,romanticism & tragedy filled me with an admiration that only becomes deeper with time,it left me reeling. From the age of 15, I'd committed to being a writer, and here was a work of art that I could dip into whenever I wanted to. I think it also made me want to write about the countryside in which I lived. If you could travel back in time, which period would you most like to visit and why ? Here's the Tess influence again. It would have to be the Victorian era, as that novel started me widely reading within the period. It's accessible enough for us to understand, or think we understand -just a matter of a century and a half or so- yet intensely different. I've just re-read 'The French Lieutenant's Woman', which so cleverly analyses the differences between the 19th & 20th Centuries. As a teenager, I always fancied being a Victorian milk maid, of course, and putting my Laura Ashley frocks to good use. Now I can see that the reality would be pretty ghastly, but I'd still like to dip into it & take a Tess tour for the day in a suitably lush Dorset valley with some docile cows to help me. I love eating out and discovering new restaurants, can you please recommend one to me? Jin Kichi in Heath Street, Hampstead, an unprepossessing looking place but the food is just amazing. Also, I love the Vietnamese restaurants on Kingsland Road, Hackney especially Viet Hoa [link] & Loong Key Cafe. In Ireland I love the Ballymaloe Restaurant [link] restaurant in County Cork. What is the best advice you ever been given relating to your professional/creative life ? Basically, all the times other writers have agreed that the only way is to get on with it. No faffing around, no waiting for inspiration, no making neurosis for inactivity! It took me a long time to discover this for myself, & most professional writers are in agreement. The inspiration follows... I was told by one editor to put in more plot. This was years ago. She was right. BONUS QUESTION : Last year I read 'Mothers & other Lovers' which I found quite shocking (and a great read) not for the central love story but the toe-curling behaviour of Eleanor's liberal middle class family & their friends. I never told you because I was sort of shy about it but I really did squeal with recognition & embarrassment (this is not a reflection btw of my family they are not really English & it's my conceit that having a foreign background sets me apart from this kind of behaviour!!). Do you have an allergy to bourgeoisie hippies or is the book more compassionate to the idea that as people get older they don't necessarily get wiser & we all just continue to flounder in our insecurities & weaknesses ? Eek! I'm a bit embarrassed that you read this, as it's very much a first novel, but pleased as well. Other people have reacted as you have - I think I have to make myself unembarrassed when writing, to get to some sort of truth. But I sometimes squirm at my own writing later. I did indeed have an allergy to the hippies, and still do, to be honest. I agree that we all continue to flounder to an extent - that's universal - but there's a particular sort of culture and aesthetic that drives me mad, I'm afraid! It's because I grew up with it - I went to school in Totnes, Devon: hippie/New Age epicentre - and we were surrounded by slow-talking beardies reciting mantras, and I became very urban, careerist and impatient in spirit as a teenager, in direct reaction. On the rare occasions I hear a slow Mockney-mixed-with-West-Country accent to this day, I come out in hives. It's just a childish attitude that's based in inevitable rebellion against everything I was surrounded by. Hey, cheers, man. I really really hope you have no issues around that...

Mama Rosin - Le Two step du Motorcycle

If this week's wake up song doesn't wake up you up there is no hope for you ! Mama Rosin are a Cajun band from Switzerland (which sounds a bit wrong but is so right !), & their music is truly infectious. I hope this track 'Le Two Step du Motorcycle' has you dancing ! Love tt

The Last Tuesday Society

On Sunday I visited the most peculiar shop in London (ok, maybe I exaggerate and that honour should go to 'Blustons' in Kentish Town High Street, a shop whose ladies' fashion and displays don't seem to have changed since the 1930s, not for some retro cool. I think it's actually been open since the 1930s & the stock hasn't moved on but that is it's charm). 'Vicktor Wynd's Little Shop of Horrors' [link] part of 'The last Tuesday Society' [link], is quite terrifying. You feel like you have stepped into another time where things are more gory and very dusty. If you are squeamish like me, you should definitely visit because I think squeamish people secretly get a big kick out of being scared! The Last Tuesday Society also has an intriguing lecture series and me & friend still faithful to the resolution of trying out things we've never done before attended a story telling event there hosted by Giles Abbott [link]. It was lovely because you so quickly revert to childhood and get lost in the stories, a real find, lots of love tt

Howl

If you have a free afternoon to catch a new movie I recommend 'Howl'. It tells the story of the events which shaped Allen Ginsberg's seminal poem 'Howl' and the obscenity trial that followed it's publication. As someone who had always found 'Howl' impenetrable, the film completely drew me into the poem & also made me more open to the way that people were trying to live, think & feel differently during this period of American history. Some critics are iffy about the animation, I'm not sure if they object to the quality of the animation or the idea of accompanying a poem with animation. It worked for me as it contributed to the overall hypnotic quality of the film and because I didn't have strong ideas about or a strong attachment to the poem. James Franco is perfectly cast. love tt